Dagmar Abfalter

On 1 June 2023, Dagmar Abfalter assumed her cultural management professorship at the Department of Cultural Management and Gender Studies (IKM).

Dagmar Abfalter studied in the University of Innsbruck’s International Economic and Business Studies programme and completed an MBA in International Arts Management at the International Centre for Culture and Management (ICCM)/University of Salzburg. She earned her doctorate in 2008 with a dissertation entitled Measuring the immeasurable? The Construction of Success in Music Theatre at the University of Innsbruck, at whose Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism she was a university assistant from 2003 to 2013. She also spent six months of 2010 researching at HEC Montréal. March 2013 saw her begin working at the mdw’s Department of Cultural Management and Gender Studies, where she completed her habilitation dissertation (entitled Research at the Interface of Arts, Culture and Management: Towards Cultural Institutions Studies 4.0) in the field of cultural institutions studies in 2018 while in a tenure-track position that led to an associate professorship.

Abfalter’s research at the intersection of cultural management and cultural institutions studies scrutinises structural inequalities as well as leadership-related and strategic processes in the cultural sector. She currently heads the structured doctoral programme “Music Matters” and serves as the mdw’s Associate Dean of Research Programmes. From 2019 to 2022, she chaired the Association of Cultural Management (Fachverband Kulturmanagement e.V.) and was part of the leading team of isaScience. She has been the associate editor for management at the International Journal of Arts Management since 2021.